Videoguys NAB 2008 Report
The feelings around this year’s NAB Show were of apprehension, tension and excitement. With the announcements that first Avid, and then Apple had pulled out of the show, no one was really quite sure what to expect. When we hit the show floor on Monday it was a bit disorienting. No longer was Avid the first booth you saw in the South Hall, and nowhere to be seen where all the folks scurrying around the Apple booth. Instead, the show had a more open and even flow to it. While the traffic was definitely down from prior years, the general mood was up, and the quality of the attendees was what counted most. The folks who came to NAB2008 came for business, and they knew what they were looking for - Improved HD workflows, higher performance, top quality products and as much bang for the buck as they could find. As you will see from our report - NAB2008 was not a disappoint. read more…

Camcorderinfo.com by Joseph Devlin

Adobe TV is the new on-line channel that delvers content via the new Adobe Media Player. Like Apple’s iTunes it provides access to tons of TV shows, video clips, and business video. Of course iTunes has been around longer and provides access to more stuff. Where this early release of Adobe TV really shines is in its offering of tutorials. I am sure that iTunes hosts more Final Cut tutorials, but if you use and train people to use Adobe applications like Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and Encore DVD, download the Adobe Media Player and check out all the free tutorials.

Be warned the Adobe Player has a very different (and much more flexible) interface than iTunes. Spend some time with this DVR influenced interface and you may like it. To find the tutorials click on the CATALOG button on the opening page and then type in the name of the application you want to learn about in the search bar. Read more…

Shane Ross is a broadcast television editor who works with HD. This is the place he shares his experiences editing high definition television shows and lets you know about the good things and the bad, hoping you can learn from his mistakes and successes.

Part 1, containing answers #1-#15.

Part 2, containing answers #16-#30.

Part 3, containing answers #31-#45.

These are the Stock Answers to commonly asked questions that I post all over the forums. Some are dated, but are still useful and a lot are timeless. The Creative Cow calls them “the ULTIMATE FCP FAQ.” Not sure if it is the ultimate (thanks guys), but it is pretty comprehensive.

Another great place to find answers to frequently asked questions is the FCP FAQ “corral” at LAFCPUG.

One of our best selling products over the past two years has been the Focus FireStore FS-4 Direct To Edit (DTE) disk recorder. FS-4 allows you to capture directly to the unit while videotaping. Even more important, you capture in the native format that works best for your NLE, allowing you to edit directly from the FS-4, or to drag and drop the files into your video drive and immediately begin editing. You never have to waste time capturing your footage again. Since the introduction of the FS-4 many new tapeless formats have emerged, but these tend to require still expensive solid-state storage. At NAB2008 Focus introduced the FS-5, their next generation of DTE product.

The FS-5 is about ½ the size and weight of the FS-4. It will ship with a 100GB iPod type hard drive which not only makes it smaller, it runs longer, cooler and quieter. Now that’s a winning combination! You’ll get 3 hours of running time from the included Li-Ion battery. It also includes USB 2.0 interface so it can mount faster and easier to more computers.

Around the NAB show one of the biggest buzzwords was metadata. That’s the added information you add about a video clip that allows you to search, sort and find the clips you want faster and easier. The new FS-5 will allow you to add metadata while you capture in the field. (more…)

While Apple and Avid elected to not exhibit at this year’s show, it left Adobe as the place to be for NLE. Adobe was not showing any new versions of their software. The demo pods had Premiere pro, AE and Encore CS3 going. What got me so excited about Adobe was the technology preview I watched on the main stage Wednesday afternoon. Please keep in mind that everything I saw there was FUTURE technology - to be integrated into CS4 when it eventually ships. Since it isn’t even announced, I can’t even begin to give you a hint as to the when, but the WHAT that is coming down the road was simply amazing.

Metadata is the words and text that we can add to video clips that allows us to find, sort and use them faster. Adobe is taking metadata to all new levels. First they showed off On Location CS4. Now, not only can you capture live in the field, you can add all kinds of metadata while you capture. Describe the clip, note if it’s a good or bad take, what talent is in it etc. Now you can save even more time when you bring it into Premiere Pro CS4 or After Effects CS4. But that’s not even the coolest part about Adobe’s new metadata plan. I saw the most incredible demonstration that will impact video editing and productivity dramatically in the future - Voice recognition software integrated into Premiere Pro CS4. You get a voice recognition metadata field that is fully searchable. So if your talent is talking about the new pick-up truck, you can search for any clips that mention words like, towing, cargo bed, horsepower etc. This technology goes beyond searching and sorting clips. You can put a track on the timeline and then search for the keywords. That’s right, if you want to find the spot when the actor talks about the new suspension, just type the word suspension in and the timeline marker goes right to it. Now this was just a technology demonstration, so I can’t speak for the accuracy of the voice recognition software, but just think about the possibilities!

Multiple Device Design Tool. When Adobe launched CS3 I thought one of the cleverest new tools was Device Central. (more…)

If you’ve been a follower of our website then you know that I have loved G-Tech G-Raids since their inception. These drives deliver outstanding performance and reliability because they have built in cooling. At NAB G-tech was showing off three new G-Raid drives that I think are very exciting.

G-RAID3
The G-RAID3 family of drives will not replace the G-RAID2, but they will be available as a step up model. What do you get with a G-RAID3 that makes it worth the extra bucks? First you get a Quad interface. That means they’ve added eSata along with FireWire 400/800 and USB2. I’m a really big fan of eSata. On the PC side you’ll find many motherboards now shipping with external eSata connections. Our DIY6 machine has two. eSata is far more reliable and faster than either FireWire or USB. GRAID3 also includes a quieter and smarter fan. It will adjust it’s speed based on the cooling needed, giving you a much quieter solution. Also there’s now a new “soft” power switch for better reliability.

G-RAID Pro
No, this is not deja vu all over again! While G-Tech has resurrected the G-Raid Pro name, this is not the same product at all. Based on the G-SPEED eS chassis, it’s a 4 drive external solution that can be configured as either a RAID0 or RAID5 using the integrated RAID controller. I’m becoming a really big fan of RAID5. You get redundancy and failsafe operation. If one of the drives fails, you don’t lose any data and you can even keep editing. The G-Raid Pro is a triple interface (FireWire 400 / 800 / USB2). At the show I asked if it was possible that G-Raid Pro could have eSata as well. I didn’t get a hard “No”, which tells me it’s still not set in stone. I hope they add eSata. This would make the G-RAID Pro the least expensive eSata RAID5 solution on the market. While the internal RAID controller would limit your ability to expand and stripe across multiple units, the price / performance value of the G-RAID Pro would make it my top recommendation for HD editors on a budget.

G-Raid mini 2
Just like the G-RAID3, the G-Raid mini2 (more…)

For me the star of the NAB2008 show was Matrox. At the dealer meeting on Sunday we felt that Matrox was introducing two new exciting products at NAB. Once I hit the show floor Monday morning and I saw the mob in their booth, it was clear that this was about more than just 2 new products. Matrox had arrived as a dual platform hardware vendor, delivering exciting new products for both PC and Mac users. With support for Apple and Adobe products, and who knows when, maybe even Avid!

Matrox MXO2

The MXO2 is a complete I/O solution for Apple and Adobe editors on the Mac platform for a fantastic price of just $1595!! You get SD and HD all in one sleek, sexy little package. MXO2 delivers all the I/O you need and want.

• You need SDI, you got it for both standard and HD with 8 tracks of embedded audio channels.
• If it’s analog I/O you need, MXO as it - component SD & HD plus all the standard SD I/O.
• What about HDMI you ask – MXO2 has it. Not just HDMI out, but HDMI input as well. Even cooler - the HDMI output includes surround sound!

How can they do it? Deliver all this I/O at such a great price? Only $1595!!Here’s the secret – they use the PCIe bus, which is 20x faster than FireWire400. It is also far more reliable and removes any bottlenecks that can occur from pushing HD footage in and out of your Mac via FireWire. The MXO2 ships with 2 PCIe adapters – one for towers and a card for your laptop. You can simply move the MXO2 between computers just by unplugging it in from one and plugging it into the other. Unlike other I/O devices on the market, MXO2 is truly portable. It’s sleek sexy form factor lets it fit in any laptop bag and it can run on AC or battery power. (more…)

While not officially at the NAB show, Avid had a very big presence. I was fortunate enough to attend their dealer meeting on Saturday and their user event Sunday night. They also had a user event Monday night and hands on demos at the Hard Rock during the show. At the dealer and user events we had the chance to hear from the new Avid management team and how they were re-inventing the company and re-thinking their business.

Let me tell you, MC Soft 3.0 is a MAJOR upgrade. Here are just some of the goodies Avid has added into the software – we’ll discuss the hardware afterwards.

1)      Media Composer 3.0 is a true multi-threaded application with support for Leopard and Vista. Under Vista 64 it will run 32 bit, but you will get to use huge amounts of RAM. MC 3.0 will also still run under XP Pro for those Windows users not yet willing to make the jump to Vista.

2)      CPU and GPU performance taps into all processing cores in your machine. Avid has designed something called Domain Management into MC Soft, which allows the software to identify what is the best way to handle the load and manage it between all the CPU cores and the GPU and the Avid’s new line of DX hardware. MC Soft does all the work, you just edit and MC Soft gets the optimal performance from your workstation.

3)      Multiple layers of HD with support for all flavors in native rasters.  This means that HDV and DVC Pro HD thin rasters are no longer an issue. You simply select the format you want to edit in and MC Soft takes care of the rest. Multiple layers of HD footage are a breeze and you can even mix formats including 720p and 1080i in the timeline in real-time.

4)      You can drag and drop multiple layers of footage together on the timeline - in multiple HD formats. This was one of my favorite parts of the demo. Before this you would have to re-create a multi-layered sequence if you wanted to add a layer anywhere but the top. Now you can just grab a stack of clips and move them anywhere on the timeline. They stay perfectly synced together and you get instant real-time performance.

5)      The handling of Media Composer 3.0 is superb. When you hit the keyboard, the timeline reacts instantaneously. No delays, no waiting. Dead on accurate response times.

6)      How much real-time HD? Depends on the speed of the computer. They were running 8-core Macs and HP workstations. 6 layers of DVC Pro HD in real-time full resolution. I think they got up to 9 when they lowered the preview to 1/4 resolution. Then we saw 3 or 4 layers of HDV in real-time full resolution output. Even more amazing was 6+ layers of DNxHD (up to 10+ with the Nitris DX hardware). Most impressive to me was when they dragged and dropped multiple layers of mixed HD formats while still maintaining full res, real-time playback.

What’s the deal for upgrades?

Upgrade for recent purchasers of MC to 3.0 will be free. The “unofficial” grandfather date is March 17^th , so registered users who purchased either the full version or the upgrade after March 17^th will be able to get a free upgrade to 3.0 when it ships via the Avid download center.  For those who purchased prior to March 17^th I have been assured this will be a reasonably priced upgrade. We expect this to be well below the continuing offer to upgrade Xpress pro to MC Soft for only $495. Keep an eye on Videoguys.com for the official upgrade information and special upgrade bundles.

Let’s talk hardware.
At the show Avid unveiled a brand new architecture that goes beyond just the software. It also includes two exciting new hardware devices designed specifically for MC 3.0. MojoDX and its big brother NitrisDX are external devices that are PCIe based, not firewire. PCIe delivers 20x the bandwidth of firewire 400. Both hardware solutions are portable and you can run them with a laptop using a laptop PCIe card. Avid was showing this on one of the pods. I’m not sure if Avid will be offering one of these laptop cards available or just certify a list of those compatible. The move to PCIe is a major change and it will allow more consistent operation and reliability. If you have laptops and towers you can move the hardware between machines just by unplugging it from one and plugging into the other. (more…)

Littel Frog in High Def by Shane Ross

So here I am, at NAB working in the Matrox booth touting the MXO. When I arrived on Sunday, I dropped off my bags at the hotel and walked to the convention center (I am very close). Got there, found that the booth is right next to the front doors in the South Hall. Nice. I drop by the booth, see the usual stuff. But…one station has “MATROX ####.” TAPE over the product name. Hmmm…I heard that they were talking about a new product. And they did ask me “hey, what would you like to see in the next MXO.” Looks like they listened to most of what I wanted.

MATROX MXO 2 is what was under that tape. And when I got there they pulled out this box…

This shouldn’t be called the Matrox MXO 2, this needs to be called Matrox MXI/O, because that is what it does. INPUT AND OUTPUT. It inputs HD SDI, Component, Composite, S-Video, HDMI, AES/EBU audio, two channels of XLR. Then it outputs the same, except for FOUR channels of XLR audio, and 6 RCA audio outputs. What does it capture? Well, anything that FCP supports. DVCPRO HD, ProRes…and uncompressed HD. Uncompressed HD? But..how? Well, because it doesn’t connect via firewire. On the tower, it connects to the PCIe board…it ships with a PCIe connector card. AND, it also ships with an Express34 card for the MacBook Pro. Now, you aren’t going to get uncompressed on the laptop, but you can do ProRes. Because it connects to the Express34 slot, you are limited to Firewire drives. But a good raided firewire drive like the FirewireVR from CalDigit or the G-Raid from G-Tech and there you go…ProRes. read more…

ProVideo Coalition Creating Motion Graphics by Chris & Trish Meyer

As expected, NAB 2008 did not reveal any major new software releases for motion graphic designers, but it did showcase a number of interesting new plug-ins. We’d like to give you a quick round-up of our favorites here; we’re arranging to give many of these more in-depth reviews up here on PVC over the next several months. We also were very interested in with what The Foundry has done with the high-end compositing application Nuke (which they acquired from Digital Domain), and came away with the impression that in this slow economy, training has become more important again.

Noise Industries FxFactory
Perhaps most intriguing wasn’t a new plug-in, but a currently-existing set which is coming to the After Effects world. Noise Industries is better known to the Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion audience as creator of FxFactory Pro, a set of over 130 GPU-accelerated filters, generators, and transitions which take advantage of Apple’s Quartz Composer technology and their FxPlug specification.
DigiEffects Returns
One of the earliest plug-in manufacturers for After Effects was DigiEffects, perhaps best known for their Cinelook film treatment effect which pre-dated Magic Bullet and its brethren. The DigiEffects plug-ins were always interesting, but unfortunately also tended to be a tad slow and unstable. read more…

DAV’s TechTable by David K Helmly

What’s New ?
With Premiere Pro CS3 and the 3.2.0 update, you can now natively Ingest, and Edit Sony’s XDCAM (DVCAM), XDCAM HD, and XDCAM EX format. Just as you would expect from Adobe and the Premiere Pro team, just drag and drop directly from the card into the Project Panel and start editing. No need to transcode your video with “wacky” single platform codec’s and no need to worry about .mov and .avi files – just edit ! There are also more updates to the MPEG-2 (HDV) editing modes. For more info jump to the “What’s New in the 3.2.0 release?” section and read about new Fixes, Known Issues, and more.

With Sony’s XDCAM EX format, making quick rough cuts directly from your Sony EX camera is a snap . YES - you can edit directly from the Sony SxS Pro card in your laptop or a simple USB 2.0 cable connected to your camera. When you return to your studio, simply copy the Premiere Pro project file from your laptop to your desktop via a standard USB2.0 Thumb drive or Network connection. read more…

Final Cut User Blog

The MXO2 has been announced and I have been waiting for this bad boy for a while now.We all knew some new toy would come after the success of the MXO and being that the MXO was just preview and everyone wanted an MXO with capture support Matrox has a new offering in the form of the MXO2 .Talk about your all in one check out the specs.

Now with all this and the price coming in at 1,599.00(US) Matrox has just thrown its hat in the ring for the all time bad ass capture and preview tool award from me.The real killer sell for me is basically this is a true capture device for your Macbook Pro over Express card slot and not over firewire. Having to work in 8 and 10 bit still makes the MX02 a no brainer for alot of people in broadcast and on set . As soon as i can get my hands on one i will have a full feature report testing with both Mac towers and portables both studio and on set. So we can see how it actually handles in real world workflow. read more…

Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

Videography magazine, published by NewBay Media, announced its Best of Show awards today at the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Convention.

NewBay Media’s Broadcast & Video Group of products, which also includes DV magazine, DV Expo and the Creative Planet Community of web sites, is uniquely poised to recognize the full spectrum video technology. A select panel of engineers, production and post professionals and editors joined the magazine staffs to judge the Best of Show awards for each publication.

The Best of Show Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology. These awards include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest-running NAB awards program; and the DV Black Diamond Awards, which launched in 2007.

“Our teams searched the NAB show floor for products that were truly deserving of recognition,” says NewBay Media Broadcast & Video Group Vice President of Sales Eric Trabb. “Recognition with an award at NAB from the Broadcast & Video Group is a strong vote of confidence and admiration from these leading publications.”

The award winners are as follows:

Blackmagic Design Videohub
Codex Digital Codex Portable
Convergent Design Flash XDR
Field Emission Technologies nano-Spindt display
Frezzi HD60EGN nickel-zinc battery
GridIron Software Flow
HP DreamColor Technology
ikan Director
JVC MR-HD200
Kino Flo Kelvin Tile
Laird Telemedia Lairdshare HD
Matrox MX02
Maximum Throughput MAXedit Web Edition
Panasonic AJ-HPX3700
Quantel Stereoscopic 3D Technology
Rosco RoscoView
Sachtler SOOM
Sarnoff Corporation Sarnoff Test Pattern
Sony PMW-EX30
VariZoom Zero Gravity

Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

Recognizing Achievement in Video Technology on Display in Las Vegas

Digital Video (DV), published by NewBay Media, announced its Best of Show awards today at the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Convention.

NewBay Media’s Broadcast & Video Group of products, which also includes DV Expo and the Creative Planet Community of websites, is uniquely poised to recognize the full spectrum video technology. A select panel of engineers, production and post professionals and editors joined the magazine staffs to judge the Best of Show awards for each publication.

The Best of Show Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology. These awards include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest-running NAB awards program; and the DV Black Diamond Awards, which launched in 2007.

“To receive an award, a technology is evaluated by our panel of editors and industry experts,” says NewBay Media Broadcast & Video Group Vice President of Sales Eric Trabb. “The winning technologies reflect innovation and engineering excellence.”

The 2008 DV Black Diamond Awards winners are as follows:

Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Microphone
Blackmagic Design Video Recorders
Cartoni Status Pro Head
DSC Labs Advanced Guide to Digital, Film and Television Production
EDIROL F1 Digital Field Recorder
Indie-Dolly Systems Universal Dolly
Innovision DV Probe
JVC MR-HD200
Litepanels Micro
Matrox MX02
Media Services Movie Stick
MOTU V3HD
Panasonic AGHM-150 AVCHD
Prompter People Mic Light
Rosco LitePad HO
Sachtler SOOM
Sonnet Technologies Fusion F2 RAID
Sony PMW-EX3
T-Jib T-Slide
VariZoom Zero Gravity

Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

Gives technical directors dedicated control and improved workflow

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today introduced LiveControl™, an optional USB-connected device for its line of TriCaster™ portable live production and virtual set systems. It provides users with dedicated control of each TriCaster input for more compelling productions with tighter pacing. LiveControl, available in two versions for all NewTek’s TriCaster models (LC-08 for TriCaster; LC-11 for TriCaster PRO™, TriCaster STUDIO™ and TriCaster BROADCAST™), can be used in tandem with NewTek’s other new LiveText™ and TimeWarp™ accessories to more efficiently integrate titling, replay and slow motion capabilities into TriCaster-generated productions.

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Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

Accessory allows the ability to immediately add slow motion and instant replay to live productions

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today introduced TimeWarp™, an optional USB-connected replay controller for its line of TriCaster™ portable live production systems. TimeWarp extends the capabilities of TriCaster by providing producers with a dedicated operator for video playback to perform instant slow motion replay at adjustable speeds on-the-fly during live productions. Together, TriCaster and TimeWarp bring a higher level of sophistication to live sports and fast-paced event coverage.

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Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

Virtual sets as used by popular sports networks are now affordable to more producers

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today introduced Sports LiveSet™ Pack, a series of five virtual sets designed for sports-related programming for its TriCaster™ line of portable live production and virtual set systems. The pack includes customizable assets and each LiveSet includes a selection of color schemes and background elements.

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Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

High-quality graphics are compatible with TriCaster™, VT[5]™ and SpeedEDIT™

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today introduced Sports Graphics Packs, two sets of graphic elements designed for sports event production using  TriCaster™, VT[5]™ and SpeedEDIT™ systems. Each Sports Graphics Pack offers five graphic designs with twelve templates each. Each template offers DVEs and graphic elements which are easy to customize.

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Click here for the Videoguys’ NAB SHOW 2008 Page with all the news from the show!

NewTek TriCaster supports prominent role of live video in major site re-launch

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today announced that the National Hockey League has integrated TriCaster™, its portable production and virtual set system, into the seven-channel digital network of its recently re-launched NHL.com Web site. With an emphasis on live content, NHL.com, as well as select NHL teams will use the TriCaster to produce and stream content for their LiveWire Channel, featuring special all-access shows, daily live news conferences, morning skates and other live events.

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